Sermon Tone Analysis

Onesimus: From slave to...

The rest of the story… Paul Harvey

There is a rest of the story regarding Philemon and Onesismus

Letter delivered at the same time as the letter to the Colossian church (and probably Ephesians as well).

The Colossian church, or at least part of it, met at Philemon’s house.

Philemon was brought to Christ through Paul’s ministry.

His slave, Onesimus, ran away and probably stole from him as he did so.

Eventually Onesimus also found Christ through Paul’s ministry, and this is where we see Paul writing this letter largely for the purpose of reconciling Onesimus and Philemon, and his goal was not merely to restore a slave to his owner, but to reconcile brothers in Christ.

The Slave is our brother

Greeting: From Paul and Timothy to Philemon, our beloved fellow worker, and Apphia our sister and Archippus our fellow soldier: It ay be that this letter, then, was written to a family.

Apphia was probably Philemon’s wife, and Archippus their son.

The greeting also includes the church in their house.

This means that the letter was not only for personal use, but had an instructive purpose for the whole church in mind.

And certainly Paul wanted Onesimus accepted as a brother, not only by Philemon, but by the church as well.

Grace to you and peace, a familiar greeting.

He is thankful for their love and faith.

So they are relationally united with Christ in love and faith, as well as with all the saints.

He prays that their faith would become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing in Christ.

Paul has heard reports about Philemon and his family and has found much comfort and joy in these reports.

They had refreshed the hearts of the saints.

This indicates that this family was ministry focused.

Paul fully recognizes that he has authority in the church.

As an apostle, as one commissioned by Christ himself, he certainly would have been able to order Philemon to do what he is asking.

Instead, he appeals to love.

Just as we are commanded in other scriptures to love one another as Christ has loved us, so Paul here appeals to love.

Paul is a prisoner himself, and an old man.

So he was appealing not just for Philemon to show love to Onesimus, but this would be a demonstration of love to Paul himself.

So he appeals to Philemon for love’s sake.

Certainly Paul also was appealing from a position of love as well.

Love for Onesimus, sure, but love for Philemon as well, since Philemon would have the chance to exercise the grace he had been given through Christ.

Paul has used this language before.

Sometimes he uses childbirth as an analogy of someone coming to Christ, other times he refers to spiritual fathers, something that elders should be to younger men and new Christians.

By calling Onesimus his child, he seems to be indicating that he had been the one who had proclaimed the gospel to Philemon, who responded with a saving faith.

This happened while Paul was imprisoned.

How this exactly came about would be nice to know, but Paul doesn’t spell it out here.

Onesimus was a runaway slave and a thief.

Both of these offenses carried the death penalty in the Roman Empire.

Even if a runaway slave was forgiven by their master, they would still probably be branded, literally, with marks indicating they had run away.

Bounty hunters were prevalent.

Just like in some Western movies, bounty hunters in the Roman days would track down wanted men, and most often this meant going after runaway slaves.

They would have descriptions of their targets, so the runaway slave would probably try to disguise himself.

Perhaps he even took the money he stole from Philemon and bought clothes to disguise himself.

Onesimus seems to have made his way to Rome, and somehow heard about Paul and must have gone to see him and heard the gospel.

What does this mean?

He was either lazy or incompetent or something.

He was useless, or worthless, but now he is useful.

He has apparently been serving Paul in some capacity, perhaps in a personal service or in a ministry context, but Paul values him greatly.

But most likely in the course of learning about Onesimus, and in Onesimus’ process of sanctification, it has come out that he has some wrongs to right.

And the connection has now been made.

This same Paul who helped Onesimus in the gospel was well aware of the ministry Philemon was doing in Colossae.

So he sends Onesimus home, but not simply to fend for himself in returning in repentance to Philemon.

He sends him with Tychicus along with the letters.

Now, Paul says, Onesimus will be valuable to you

This shows how close of a relationship had developed between Paul and Onesimus.

Not only were they close, Paul would have been glad to just keep him around.

Had he asserted apostolic authority in this situation, perhaps he could have written the letter but kept Onesimus with him.

But he wants reconciliation to be voluntary, not compelled.

So Paul could have used Onesimus, but he wanted this reconciliation to happen.

Perhaps he felt it would be a powerful example to the church of how the gospel itself provides a ministry of reconciliation; we are reconciled through Christ to God, and we are reconciled through Christ one to another.

He hopes Philemon will do this willingly

One of my favorite lines of my favorite Christmas song is “Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in His name all oppression shall cease.”

How else could a slave and master find themselves beloved brothers, other than by the sovereign work of God Almighty?

In His name all oppression shall cease.

This is a huge thing for paul to ask.

He could have merely said, here is your slave back, take him back and don’t be too hard on him.

Or he could have said, take him back, and let him have more grace from you.

No, Paul says, embrace him as a brother.

Not only as an equal person, not only as an employer to employee, but as brother.

Chains shall he break, for the slave is our brother, and in his name, all oppression shall cease.

No Paul says, if you are one with me in Christ, you must also be one with Onesimus, receive him as you would receive me.

In other words, treat him just as you would treat me if I were personally there.

Put out the good food, the good plates, invite the people over, celebrate together, just as if Paul himself were there visiting.

And this reminds us of so many other lessons in scripture.

The prodigal son, for whom a feast was prepared.

The saying of Jesus that whatever you have done for the least of these, you have done it for me.

Paul is taking personal responsibility for whatever Onesimus owes.

But really, whatever Onesimus owes to Philemon is nothing compared to what Philemon “owes” to Paul.

Paul brought the gospel of salvation, and whatever is owed him in the material world is dwarfed by the value of the gospel.

The one who is forgiven much loves much.

The debt of the servant who owed a little pales in comparison to the debt of sin we all owe, the debt paid by Christ for those who put saving faith in Him.

Is it ok for someone to expect a fellow believer to do something for them?

While we never want to be presumptuous about what others should do for us, calling upon someone to do something for the sake of the Kingdom is acceptable.

Paul expects that Philemon will be compelled to do this; remember, not compelled because Paul bullied him, but because al Paul is really calling him to do is what is right for him to do.

Onesimus: From slave to...

There are many things to learn from this short letter.

Lessons that apply to us today, even though we do not relate to each other as slaves and masters.

But if Paul can properly expect such reconciliation between a runaway slave and thief and his master, simply because they are now united through their mutual faith in Christ, how much more should we be able to reconcile to other believers who have not stolen from us?

I have observed that many of you have spoken of people, who, over the years, have left the fellowship of the church.

You long for those relationships to be restored.

You miss those who once had a place at your table, and still have a place in your heart.

And sadly, it is probably likely that someone who moved on to another fellowship may not ever come back.

Of course we would like that to happen, but if we consider that they left for a reason, and they perhaps joined another congregation for a reason, and have now established themselves there, it may not be that they return to regular fellowship.

So what do we do with that?

First, and most important, is to remember that regardless of what local church someone goes to, if they share a saving faith in Jesus Christ, they are brothers and sisters.

If they once attended here, and now attend elsewhere, your functional relationship with them may have changed, but your relationship in Christ need not change.

You see, when someone moves on, we may feel abandoned, or even betrayed.

Yet, in Christ, if we are in Christ, our common factor is still there.

The common factor is not the congregation we are part of, the common factor is Jesus!

People leave for many reasons.

They may leave because they don’t like the preaching, or the music, or the programs available.